So much focus has been on the offensive line in training camp, and understandably so with an entirely new unit, that it’s easy to forget how different the Dolphins’ secondary will look in 2014.
Yes, we can write Brent Grimes’ name down in ink at one cornerback spot — he was clearly the team’s MVP last season — but the rest of the secondary is under a microscope. The only other starting holdover, safety Reshad Jones, had a subpar season in 2013. Dimitri Patterson and Chris Clemons were allowed to walk.
In steps Cortland Finnegan, coming off two injury-plagued seasons with Tennessee after being rated as one of the NFL’s top corners, and safety Louis Delmas from Detroit.
So?

“We looked good,” Grimes said after Saturday’s scrimmage. “We made some plays. Of course, it’s still training camp. It’s still essentially a practice, so there are some things we need to get better with. But as for the most part, we did well. Got some turnovers. That’s what you want.”

Toss in second-year men Jamar Taylor and Will Davis at corner, and there’s ample opportunity for assignments to be blown. How’s the communication?
“Great,” Grimes said. “That’s a key for the secondary. People might not notice, but we talk a lot out there. We know where we’re supposed to be. And for having two guys that weren’t here last year, they’re doing exceptionally well and they’re picking it up fast.”
As for Finnegan, Grimes said, “Cortland is doing great. You saw him make a big play today (an interception). He’s been doing that since he got here.”
Titans coach Jeff Fisher pretty much expected that from Finnegan — if the Dolphins are able to keep him healthy. I asked Fisher about Finnegan at the NFL meetings in Orlando this off-season. His response:
“What he would say, and I would agree with — I don’t know at any point he was really at 100 percent (in 2013). He dealt with some soft-tissue issues through the OTAs and camp. He got back to starting, so any player his age (now 30), you have to work harder each year to maintain your skill-set.
“I think the soft-tissue issues prevented him from doing that and then he played with a hamstring during the season and then he played with an orbital fracture, which was even more difficult.
“And so I think a healthy Cortland, with a commitment to a solid off-season, has a chance to come back to what he was, yes.”

The woman behind the man: Second-round pick Jarvis Landry continues to make an impact on a talented receiving corps. He attributes his progress to a wicked training schedule dating back to his days at LSU when he’d break into the training facility and work until 1 a.m. last summer, something detailed in my profile on Landry here.

Perhaps the most stunning part of all this is that since he’s a receiver, he couldn’t do this alone, so he often enlisted the services of his girlfriend to feed balls to the jugs machine that would spit out passes to him.

Put yourself in the place of a college athlete. You call your girlfriend at 10, 11 at night.
You: “Hi. Can you meet me at the field house? Time for me to work out.”
Her: (Click).
Lucky for Landry, that didn’t happen.
“I mean, that’s why I love her, though,” Landry said. “She was one of the people that pushed me to my fullest potential and it was unselfish for her to get out of bed or whatever it was to help me get better. She’s an athlete herself.”
There was some payback involved. She’s on LSU’s softball team, and when she wanted to work in the batting cage, Jarvis reciprocated as her assistant. It’s no wonder they’re still an item.
Oh, and as for Landry not having cable TV then or now? That’s still the case. Landry does have a PlayStation and will go take in a movie now and then, but otherwise, his “entertainment” is watching game films to improve.
“The last time I can say I watched TV was the draft,” Landry said.

Miller runs tough: Most surprising sight at the scrimmage, for me, might have been the authority with which Lamar Miller ran. Yes, it was often against the second-team defense, but packing on a few extra pounds up to 224 might suit Miller well.
He ran between the tackles. He broke tackles. With coordinator Bill Lazor’s style designed to stretch defenses all over the field, it may well allow Miller to showcase speed we never saw last year.
And every day that Knowshon Moreno’s comeback is delayed is one more day Miller can show if he’s the guy for the job.

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